Liveblog 4: The Yankees Are Baffling

Seriously, what is with this team? They're completely baffling. Streaky doesn't begin to describe them. How can one team go so quickly back and forth between amazing and terrible?

After Clippard's first start, they looked like they might be picking up the pace. They took two of three from Boston in some well-played games. They then lost five straight to the Angels and Blue Jays. Immediately after, they got back on the horse and went on a tear. They beat Boston twice again, and won nine straight. Including the salvaged final game of the Toronto series, they won 14 of 17, slashing half a dozen games off Boston's lead and getting within four games of a wild card berth. They were back in the race! Then they went to Colorado, and apparently were replaced by talentless, alien clones as they forgot how to hit and lost 6 of 7, including two against the awful Giants and two in walk-off fashion while their best reliever rode pine.

I'm still not sure whether the 14-3 or 1-6 Yankees are closer to the real team, but it's looking more like the latter. It doesn't make any sense, though. They shouldn't be underperforming this badly. A-Rod is back on track for a monster year, with his huge home run total, RBI, slugging... his batting average is also going up too, which is pretty irrelevant to how well he's producing, but showing that recently his power's leveled off a bit but he's collecting a bunch of smaller hits. He had yet another huge, clutch, game-tying home run in the ninth inning against the Giants, unfortunately his team eventually lost that game anyway. Posada is coming back down to earth, and it's making his defensive deficiencies this year more obvious. He's fallen from a great defensive campaign in 2006, and he's throwing out nobody. Damon should be on the DL, but he isn't because he's a "gamer" and is trying to play through his injuries. It doesn't matter that him being in the lineup hurt is worse for the team, apparently. Abreu is back to his slumping ways after a strong beginning of the month. I wonder if last year's playoff push was his real last hurrah before declining much faster than you'd think he should.

Tyler's back in AAA after a few bad starts. He looked promising when he came up, and I think he has potential for a good future, but he just wasn't controlling his pitchers and couldn't give the team innings. Kei Igawa is back on the team after some work in the minors, hopefully he can fill in well as the returning fifth starter, but right now that signing looks like wasted money. Maybe Hughes can come back next month (his return was delayed when he rolled his ankle), and Igawa can find a role in the bullpen to prosper in. Lord knows the Yankees need help there.

Luis Vizcaino has been improving of late, and hopefully he can earn some trust and contribute as the season continues. It appears he may be the best thing we get out of the Johnson trade, because the prospects that came with him aren't doing much. Kyle Farnsworth is just bad. He's not trustworthy, but he's still Joe's go-to guy in the eighth. I'd be angrier about it if there were clearly better options. Proctor continues to get abused the hell out of. Last night was the second time in his last two appearances he lost the game when Rivera was still available. The first game, he was in his third inning, the last one, he just didn't have it.

When a team is losing, the manager should try to win games. This includes using the best available pitcher in high-leverage situations. High-leverage situations, such as the bottom of the ninth inning or later in away games, when giving up a run means you lose the game. It does not include keeping your fully-rested and apparently back-to-normal closer out of the game when you need him most. Joe Torre is a terrible manager of the bullpen, and more and more people are realizing it. Combined with his idiotic use of bunting (Useful in a select few situations, but usually bad for your chances) and waste of resources, and he just should not be running a big league team anymore. He probably won't be thrust out of office until after the season, but it's been time for him to leave for a while. And by waste of resources, I mean not using what the team gives you. Like continuing to start Miguel Cairo, an okay glove man with no power, at first base, a position of little defensive importance that teams like to have a lot of power at, when you've gotten rid of a player who can't play defense and replaced him with someone who can, and who has more power than Cairo. Or letting Chris Britton, who was great last year in the majors, continue to be great in the minors while you are dying for bullpen help. Or leaving players you've called up on the bench instead of using them to pinch hit, so you can have an overworked reliever pitch a THIRD INNING while you still haven't used your best available guy. It's maddening.

Roger Clemens has joined the team, and not helped them too much. He earned the win in his first start, and would have in his stronger, second outing if his team could hit a lick against Oliver Perez. He was bad in his last start and ineffective in relief against the Giants, hopefully he can rebound tonight. He's not doing too bad, but in what's looking more and more like a rebuilding year, most of me wishes they used that signing money to secure draft picks or something. I may or may not be back later to blog about some or all of the game. Honestly, watching this team doesn't seem very interesting lately.

Top 1 - Erik Bedard starts the game by striking out the side, which makes sense since he leads the majors in strikeouts and two of the three hitters were lefties who aren't doing jack right now. I wasn't familiar with Bedard and wondered why he's been so good this year, and it's because he's a lefthander with a 95 mph fastball and wicked breaking stuff. Why isn't he getting as much attention as the guys he's ahead of in K's like Peavy and Sabathia? It's just because his ERA isn't shiny and he doesn't play in a big city or for a good team. He was certainly impressive, although it took him too long - those three outs required twenty pitches.

Bottom 1 - Clemens wasn't as flashy, but got through the inning in just seven pitches. He gave up a single to Chris Gomez but erased him on a double play ball. Did you know Yankee pitchers are last in the majors in striking batters out? Someone has to be, I guess. It's definitely hurt the team this year... they never seem to get the big strikeout to cancel the runner-on-third-one-out threat, and it leads to runs they shouldn't be giving up. They've also been pretty bad about preventing walks.

Top 2 - A-Rod made contact with a foul, but also gets struck out on a full count. Bedard won't be around too long this way, no matter how many Yankees he rings up. Posada breaks up the monotony with a single over the shortstop's head. The one guy he doesn't get out sees by far the fewest pitches. Abreu lazily flies out to left. Melky grounds out and the inning's over. Only sixteen pitches for Bedard there.

Bottom 2 - Some positive stats on the pitcher peripheral front - the Yankees don't give up that many home runs. The hitters are also pretty good about walking and not striking out, although they've been very mediocre about hitting home runs. A-Rod has a ton, but he's the only one with double digits this year. He has more than one third of his team's total, which is just crazy. A fly out and a ground out, and Clemens is working quickly. On what was potentially a very scary play, a groundball ricochets off him before he slides to get it and throw the runner out. He's not blowing hitters away but will probably stay in the game longer than Erik.

Top 3 - Cano is quickly called out on strikes, Bedard's fifth. He then gets out of the inning with two ground outs. Using their peripherals and an average of 8.85 innings per game, the same as they've had over their first 74 games, the Yankees are projected to have an even-worse 4.53 ERA at the end of the season, assuming they pitch to their Fielding Independent Pitching the rest of the year. I'm gonna bet it's lower than that, because they can't really be this mediocre, can they?

Bottom 3 - Our old buddy Kevin Millar grounds out. While watching the game, I've been listening to The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium, and it just ended. I'll talk about it more another time, but it's damn good. Gibbons hits a ball that Melky easily catches. Patterson hits one right to Abreu, and it's on to the fourth. He has only 29 pitches to Bedard's 47.

Top 4 - Jeter likes helping pitchers out. He flies out on the first pitch. Mora boots a slow roller from Matsui, and it's counted as a hit anyway because scorers are nice. A-Rod hustles nicely to beat out a potential double play. Nice to see big sluggers who do that. Posada goes down looking. Bedard's dealing. 6 K's in 4 innings and the pitch count is getting more stable.

Bottom 4 - Roberts dunks a single just out of Matsui's reach. Gomez flies out to right center. They showed the stat that in the last two years, runners have stolen 20 bases off Clemens in 22 tries, which is atrocious. On the bright side, that's not many attempts in two years, so he's good at keeping runners off base. Roberts makes that 21 steals in 23 tries. The runner's moved to third on a grounder to first. Hernandez walks, and Clemens looks like he's trying to catch up to Bedard in pitches thrown if he can't in strike outs. He flirts with another base on balls before inducing a ground out to end the inning. He threw a lot of pitches, but thanks to an efficient beginning he's still good to go deep in the game. The lack of K's is odd, though.

Top 5 - Abreu grounds out on a 3-1 pitch. Come on, Bobby, if you're not gonna hit, at least give the guy a chance to walk you. Melky bunts himself out, which you know, is awesome. Why try to squeeze as many pitches out of the guy as you can and try to get to the bullpen when you can hand him outs in a vain attempt to scrape together a run, which seems unlikely? Robinson Cano somehow walks after two swinging strikes. Bizarre. I would have predicted Cairo to slam a fly ball 20 yards in front of the warning track, but he grounds out instead.

Bottom 5 - Mora quickly grounds out to short. I'm glad interleague play is over. Somebody's schedule is always unfair, and I really don't like the lack of a DH in the NL. I understand the tradition and increased strategy, but that doesn't make it enjoyable to watch guys who can't hit try, and it just makes extra-inning games take longer as they get low on pinch hitters and consider batting relievers to squeeze more innings out of them. Millar pops out. Gibbons walks, and that's it for now as I'm gonna go watch some Romans kill each other at my friend's house. I'll wrap this up later.

Wrap-up - Clemens allowed a double but escaped the inning without harm. The same could not be said for the sixth, when he allowed four runs, and with Bedard picking up two more strikeouts en route to seven innings of shutout ball, it was more than enough to hand the Yankees their seventh loss in the last eight games. If it weren't for the Mariners having the Yanks' back and sweeping the Red Sox, they'd be right back where they started before the hot streak. The team is just lifeless.

An interesting, perhaps overlooked subplot to this season is the battle for second place all time in strikeouts. Clemens had a slim lead over Randy Johnson at the beginning of the year, and while he sat around pondering who to sign with for the first couple months, Johnson caught up and passed him by one in time for Clemens' first start. After that, it was a bit of a back and forth before Randy went back on the DL with back problems, giving Clemens a chance to get a bit of breathing room. He isn't helping himself there by striking out no one in six innings, though. Tonight was the first time in years he didn't get a K in a game he pitched. I don't know, I personally find the fight for all-time runner-up to Nolan Ryan more interesting than a few guys gunning for the deflated 500 home run plateau.